Museum of Zoology

The Museum of Zoology is now closed for refurbishment until 2016, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Schools Outreach during closure - we come to you!

We are running an outreach programme during the closure period. For details of what we offer for schools and other groups, see Educational visits. We’ll also be making an appearance at events around Cambridge. For details about where to find us keep an eye on our Upcoming events page.

Outreach Activities

We offer a selection of outreach activities suitable for delivery in a classroom setting. The sessions are based around a collection of specimens which pupils can handle and investigate. Current themes include:

• Skeletons
• Ecosystems 
• Animal Diversity

These can be tailored to suit projects for Foundation year, KS1 and KS2 groups. We are very interested in developing more activities to support school work so please contact us if there is something in particular which would help with your projects.

We welcome the opportunity to work with pupils with Special Educational Needs. Contact us to discuss how we can best help with your project.

Out of school groups
Informal education sessions can be tailored for other children’s groups such as: home education groups, community centre activities, summer schools. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

School loans boxes
We have a selection of loans boxes that are are free for schools to borrow. We do ask that schools collect and return this material to us within two weeks. For further information or to book a loan, please contact us on 01223 768918/336650.

The loans boxes available are:

- Skulls A selection of skulls that can be tailored to your requirements in the classroom. 

- Adaptations – Teeth A selection of mammal teeth adapted to different diets, and juvenile crocodile skull and fossil shark teeth for comparison.

- Adaptations – Bird Beaks and Feet A selection of bird skulls and feet from species adapted to different lifestyles. Please note: this material is not suitable for handling as it is extremely fragile.

- Under the Sea Contains 34 specimens of marine invertebrates – bivalve and gastropod molluscs, echinoderms, crustaceans and a coral. Resources include: KS1 literacy resources to write stories using the objects as inspiration; classification of animals; ideas for use in teaching numeracy.

- Shell Detective Contains the shells of 10 species of bivalve mollusc. What evidence do these shell provide about the lifestyles of the animals that lived in them? Develop observation skills to answer this and other questions. Resources include: background information on the structure of bivalve molluscs; fact files on the species in the box; and suggested activities.

- British Bivalves This box contains the shells of 8 species of bivalve mollusc that you might see around the coast of the UK, and fact files about them.

- Further resources under development Current projects are putting together resources on animal diversity, bird and mammal skeletons, and resources for groups with special educational needs. For further information please contact us.